Date

Topics and Readings

Work Due

Wednesday 9/26

Program Introduction

Reading:

Saturday

 9/29

The Social Contract Tradition

Reading: Locke, chs. I-V;  Rousseau, Book I, chs. I-V

Wilder, "How to Read Philosophy" [1]

Initial Paper on the State of Nature

Wednesday 10/3

The Founding Era

Reading: Wood, part I; Locke, chs. VII- XIII

Carr, "The Historian and his Facts"

Wednesday 10/10

The Founding Era, continued

Reading: Wood, part II; Rousseau, Book I, chs. VI-IX and Book II, chs. I-IV

First Essay

Saturday 10/13

The Founding Era, concluded.

Reading: Wood, part III

Wednesday 10/17

The Civil War and Reconstruction

Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" [2]; Lincoln and Douglas, Fifth Debate [3]; Lincoln, Second Inaugural [4]

First Essay Rewrite

Wednesday 10/24

The Reconstruction Era

Reading: Foner, chs. 1-6

Saturday 10/27

The Reconstruction Era, concluded

Reading: Foner, chs. 7-12

Film: "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War"

Second Essay

Wednesday 10/31

The Progressive Era

Reading: Dawley, part I; Mill, "What Utilitarianism Is" [5]

Wednesday 11/7

First World War and Aftermath

Reading: Dawley, Part II; Mill and Taylor, "The Subjection of Women" chapter 1 [6]; Stanton, "Declaration of the Rights of Women" [7]

Second Essay Rewrite

Saturday 11/10

Marxism and the "Red Scare"

Marx, "Estranged Labor" [8] (from the Economic and Political Manuscripts of 1844), "Idealism and Materialism" [9] (from The German Ideology) and The Communist Manifesto Parts I and II [10].

Wednesday 11/14

Depression and New Deal

Reading: Dawley, Part III

Draft of Position Paper

Wednesday 11/21

Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday 11/28

The Social Contract Tradition Today

Reading: Rawls, from "Justice as Fairness"; Mills, introduction and ch. 1

Position Paper Rewrite

Saturday

12/1

The Social Contract Tradition Today, continued

Reading: Mills, chs. 2 & 3

Film: "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"

Wednesday 12/5

Polished Position paper and portfolio